Books are oxygen to soul

Bookworms never go to bed alone, but with a book on their chest! This is a fact that metaphorically reflects how passionate are book lovers about reading. Perhaps, most of them regard reading as a must-to-do task in their daily routine. Can you imagine that they never skip a day without reading a few pages of a book?! Probably, it is an addiction rather than a passion. The life of those bookworms is meaningless without the blessing of a book being kept in their cars, bedrooms or offices. They are never alone!

If truth to be told, it is just a book that makes their day! Possibly, deep down they believe in the saying, "Let books be your dining table, and you shall be full of delights. Let them be your mattress, and you shall sleep restful nights". It is true what has been said that there is no friend as loyal as a book. One said that a room without a book is like a body with no soul. Thomas Wharton, a Canadian novelist, said: “An hour spent reading is one stolen from Paradise”. This reflects how enthusiastic bookworms are when reading a book.

Based on this, one has to ask himself a very important question to better realise the value of reading in one’s life. The question is, “What exactly do people get from reading books? Is it just a matter of having pleasure, or are there benefits beyond enjoyment? The answer is undoubtedly “yes”, there are other benefits of reading beyond enjoyment. In fact, reading books benefits both one’s physical and mental health, and those benefits can last a lifetime.

According to the study “Reading skill and structural brain development, published in the American National Library of Medicine website, using MRI scans, researchers have confirmed that reading involves a complex network of routes and signals in the brain. As one’s reading ability matures, those networks also get stronger and more sophisticated. In one study conducted in 2013, researchers used functional MRI scans to measure the effect of reading a novel on the brain. Study participants read the novel “Pompeii” over a period of 9 days. As tension built in the story, more and more areas of the brain lit up with activity.

Brain scans showed that throughout the reading period and for days afterwards, brain's connectivity has increased, especially in the part of the brain that responds to physical sensations like movement and pain. Hence, one has to always remember that reading books can change our brain and your body for the better. That is why bookworms are addicted to reading. Most of them, perhaps, started reading in early childhood and continue throughout the years until it became a habit that could never give up.

In view of this, let's think aloud and evaluate our reading ability and interest. Are we reading enough? Are you among the reading enthusiasts and bookworms? In other words, how much we care about reading as parents, students or professionals? While thinking about these questions, one shall recall that generally the biggest pleasure comes from what we read, not from on what we read. It is said that there is a great difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

All that matters is attitude towards reading, which is a good habit that not many people are accustomed to. Unfortunately, with the addiction of new technology and social media, reading is being undervalued and ignored. Most people are getting busier every day in life, so reading is not accorded that much of attention. This might be due to people misallocating sufficient time for reading, though some have the interest. However, without having the serious passion to read, people will not get that time to do it. If this is missing from their life, then reading would be neither a habit nor important.